If there’s one thing every gamer loves, it math. And even if you don’t particularly like mathematics, you probably should. You see, math can open up new understanding and insight into the games you love. Games like Assassin’s Creed: Revelations. A few calculations can shed light on previously dismissed strategies or builds.

Now, you could spend all day crunching numbers and building boring Excel spreadsheets, or you could just wait till someone online does it for you. Well, today’s your lucky day.

Skill crafting basics

Before you get daunted by the name, “Skill Crafting” in Revelations doesn’t really match the paradigm of “crafting.” There are no recipes, item collecting, and chance of failure… just grinding. For the per-ability cost of 80 Abstergo Credits you can customize any ability to your liking. There is only one copy of each ability, so changing its effects will alter the way it works in every loadout. But don’t fret – even the worst craft is better than the default skill configuration!

If this sounds familiar, it’s essentially a revised iteration of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood‘s skill customization mechanics. You don’t have to complete specific/impossible challenges to unlock what you want, so for most players it should be a less annoying experience, though still a time-consuming one.

Each ability has three parameters you can tweak, and you’re given two points to use as you see fit. You can spend both points on one parameter, or spread them between two parameters, or (if you are a complete idiot) spend one point and throw away the other. Common attributes you can affect are cooldown, duration, range… you get the idea.

In this guide, you’ll find charts showing the full customization possible for each ability, as well as my recommendations for the best ability crafting outcomes for Revelations. All times listed are in seconds, and all distances in meters.

Are you ready to start slaughtering your way to the tops of the Templar ranks?

ACR Ability Crafting Guide

DECOY

Default

+1 Point

% Change

+2 Points

% Change

Cooldown

50

45

-10.0%

40

-20.0%

Duration

5

10

100.0%

15

200.0%

Behavior

Normal

Discreet

n/a

Disguised

n/a

Decoy turns a nearby NPC into a copy of you that runs around in the hopes of luring a pursuer into killing it or buying you enough time to escape. The skill has a very short cooldown, and the first point only buys you 5 seconds (10%), so I’d recommend one point in duration, doubling it from 5 seconds to 10. While a second point in duration is tempting, spending it on behavior instead buys you a more convincing Decoy that walks at a normal speed instead of random, panicked flailing. Most enemies will distrust the standard behavior, but might be fooled by a more calm dummy.

DISGUISE

Default

+1 Point

% Change

+2 Points

% Change

Cooldown

60

55

-8.3%

45

-25.0%

Duration

15

18

-10.0%

20

33.0%

Visibility

Strong

Medium

n/a

Light

n/a

Disguise changes your appearance to that of a random persona, allowing you to fool pursuers and targets alike (assuming you don’t unfortunately Disguise as one of them). While a shorter cooldown would be great, a large 33% increase in duration means you have more time to make your escape or your approach in the clutch moments you need it most. Cutting down on the visibility of the animation is all right, but a longer duration puts off the flickering warning flashes by 5 seconds anyway. If you haven’t won by then, you wouldn’t have won anyway.

TRIPWIRE BOMB

Default

+1 Point

% Change

+2 Points

% Change

Cooldown

90

80

-11.1%

75

-16.7%

Range

2

2.1

5.0%

2.3

15.0%

Activation

5

4.2

-16.0%

3.5

-30.0%

Tripwire Bomb places a proximity mine in the ground that incapacitates enemies who step near it. Anyone who’s used it knows how annoying the long activation time is, so a point is definitely worth spending there. Whether you opt for an additional setup reduction or go for a lower cooldown is up to you, but I believe having a new Bomb available 10 seconds sooner is worth more than having the current one up 0.7 seconds faster. Don’t even consider the range stat, which buys you a measly 30 centimeters of explosive radius.

CLOSURE

Default

+1 Point

% Change

+2 Points

% Change

Cooldown

50

45

-10.0%

40

-20.0%

Range

25

30

20.0%

35

40.0%

Duration

5

5.8

16.0%

6.5

30.0%

Closure activates every Chase Breaker within a huge proximity, keeping opponents at bay or trapping them in a closed space with you. Rorschach much, anyone? This is a situational skill, so you want it to work as well as possible when the need to fence off foes arrives. To that end, a 30% increase in duration to 6.5 seconds guarantees a good gating effect. Closure’s recharge is already quite low, and the range is huge, so those stats don’t really warrant buffs.

TEMPLAR VISION

Default

+1 Point

% Change

+2 Points

% Change

Cooldown

75

70

-6.7%

60

-20.0%

Duration

3

4

33.3%

5

66.7%

Range

25

30

20.0%

40

60.0%

Templar Vision reveals the true nature of every character on screen, showing you if they’re friend, foe, or just another dumbass AI. Its largest downside is that it also reveals you to all nearby players, which is why dropping a point in range to put you farther from potential punishment is great. You could go for a second point in range for a 40-meter line of sight, but that tends to be overkill in ACR’s small maps. Boost duration 33% instead for more time to scan for your victim.

FIRECRACKERS

Default

+1 Point

% Change

+2 Points

% Change

Cooldown

75

70

-6.7%

60

-20.0%

Range

5

5.5

10.0%

6

20.0%

Duration

4

4.5

12.5%

5

25.0%

Firecrackers cause computer-controlled personas to panic, leaving real players standing around conspicuously. It also blinds them, making ensuring their death all the easier. In Brotherhood I would have recommended range upgrades to give you the edge over Smoke Bombs, but in Revelations you can throw Firecrackers, eliminating this need. You won’t need Firecrackers constantly, so forgo cooldown for duration buffs, keeping your enemies running into walls for 25% longer.

MORPH

Default

+1 Point

% Change

+2 Points

% Change

Cooldown

60

55

-8.3%

45

-25.0%

Duplicates

4

5

25.0%

6

50.0%

Range

3.2

4

25.0%

5

56.3%

Morph isn’t just a stupid X-Men character; it’s also an ACR ability that turns 4 nearby NPCs into copies of you. It gives your pursuers a 20% chance of guessing who you really are, which means the need for additional dupes isn’t really necessary. Range can ensure fewer “dud” uses that don’t hit close targets, but good players will rarely miss. That leaves two points for cooldown, giving you the option of making instant friends as often as you’re so inclined.

BODYGUARD

Default

+1 Point

% Change

+2 Points

% Change

Cooldown

50

45

-10.0%

40

-20.0%

Range

8

10

25.0%

12

50.0%

Duration

8

10

25.0%

12

50.0%

Bodyguard, like Decoy, creates a copy of your character. Unlike Decoys, Bodyguards don’t run from opponents – they stroll towards them and attempt to stun them for you. Combine the two abilities and you have a never-ending circus of NPC puppets! Like Decoy, cooldown isn’t a big problem, and 8 meters is quite all right for range as-is. Bodyguard benefits from duration bonuses tremendously, so dump both points there and watch as hilarity ensues.

HIDDEN GUN

Default

+1 Point

% Change

+2 Points

% Change

Cooldown

90

80

-11.1%

75

-16.7%

Aiming Time

2

1.5

-25.0%

1

-50.0%

Accuracy

30

45

50.0%

60

100.0%

Hidden Gun won’t earn you the respect of your targets, but it will earn you their bounties. While the aiming time is annoying (the accuracy is tied to it, starting at 30% and reaching 100% at full charge), you should only use the gun when you are sure you have the time to do so. In other words, if you were planning to take a quick shot at someone, you probably shouldn’t be using the Hidden Gun anyway. Skip those attributes and give yourself more shots with a double cooldown point distribution.

THROWING
KNIVES

Default

+1 Point

% Change

+2 Points

% Change

Cooldown

50

45

-10.0%

40

-20.0%

Duration

2.8

3.2

14.3%

3.5

25.0%

Target Speed

80%

75%

-6.3%

70%

-12.5%

Throwing Knives somehow leave targets living, albeit crippled and unable to move in high profile (including climbing) for a short time period. Their duration and slowing effect suck, but the bonuses to these parameters suck even more, with meager additions to each category. Most of the time, you’ll be using Throwing Knives to knock Templar off of walls or wires, so cut down on the cooldown to give yourself a vertical edge on a more frequent basis.

CHARGE

Default

+1 Point

% Change

+2 Points

% Change

Cooldown

90

80

-11.1%

75

-16.7%

Duration

2

2.5

25.0%

3

50.0%

Accuracy

25

30

20.0%

35

40.0%

Charge hurls you at crowds full-speed, automatically locking on to your pursuer or target, even if you had no clue who your foe was within the fray. It’s a great all-around skill since it can disable enemies on either side of the equation… when it hits. Extra duration can backfire when you run off cliffs or straight past your victim, so ensure more clean connections with a 20% boost in accuracy instead. Then chop 10 seconds off the cooldown with a point spent there.

SMOKE BOMB

Default

+1 Point

% Change

+2 Points

% Change

Cooldown

60

55

-8.3%

45

-25.0%

Range

3.2

3.5

9.4%

3.8

18.8%

Duration

3

3.5

16.7%

4

33.3%

Smoke Bomb is hands-down the best skill in the game, so why not use it more often? It incapacitates all characters in its AOE, giving you 3 seconds to have your way with their coughing, soon-to-be corpses. Duration can help in Smoke Bomb vs Smoke Bomb spam, but is otherwise unnecessary in most circumstances. Smoke Bomb is already very powerful, so I recommend double cooldown boosts. Range is a nice perk, but you can now throw Smoke Bombs (slowly).

MUTE

Default

+1 Point

% Change

+2 Points

% Change

Cooldown

90

80

-11.1%

75

-16.7%

Range

6

6.5

8.3%

7

16.7%

Duration

1.5

1.8

20.0%

2.1

40.0%

Mute shuts down all enemies’ abilities, including the ability to stun or kill you, within a gigantic three-dimensional radius. The only downsides? A painfully short window of efficacy and an inversely protracted period of cooldown. Increasing the range from “enormous” to “galactic” is a fucking waste, so don’t bother there. Just slice down your wait time and notch up the precious effective duration so you can land more successful Mutes on a more frequent basis.

TELEPORT

Default

+1 Point

% Change

+2 Points

% Change

Cooldown

90

80

-11.1%

75

-16.7%

Activation

2.5

2.1

-16.0%

1.8

-28.0%

Range

35

40

14.3%

45

28.6%

Teleport gives you the power of Nightcrawler, hurtling you forward 35 meters, usually a safe distance from would-be aggressors. Much like Closure, you won’t need Teleport all the time, but when you do, it needs to work without hitches. Ignore the cooldown for this one, as well as the range, since a football field is plenty of breathing room. Cut the activation time by 28% so it’s less likely your life ends before the beam me up Scotty Teleportation animation does.

POISON

Default

+1 Point

% Change

+2 Points

% Change

Cooldown

90

80

-11.1%

75

-16.7%

Delay

6.5

5

-23.1%

3.5

-46.2%

Score Bonus

200

250

25.0%

300

50.0%

Poison is the mechanical opposite of the Hidden Gun, giving you a huge point bonus for a silent kill at close range. If used correctly, your victim won’t realize he’s dead until Satan himself is asking him which orifice he’d like violated first. While the long kill delay is annoying, a smart player will rarely get poached. You’re left with a tradeoff between a higher initial bonus and a lower recharge for more opportunities to score big. Why not take the middle ground, just to be safe?

Download this guide

I hope you’ve found this guide useful. Keep in mind that while the stats presented above are factual as of this writing, my opinions are just that – opinions. Experiment with your own crafts and let me know your preferences in the comments below. If you’d like a permanent version of this file, download a Assassin’s Creed Revelations Abilities Guide PDF. Don’t forget to stay tuned to Top Tier Tactics for more great ACR strategy, tips, and events!

I’m not sure about whether dumping two points in teleport activation is all that good.
I mean, there’s nothing wrong with one point, especially as it provides you 20% more % than the second one. Although when I would see myself using teleport it would be either after creating yourself a cozy little cave using closure, which there is way enough time to teleport in anyway, especially when you have 4 seconds of duration instead of 3, thus bringing you out of that little “Anywhere but here”-situation with two pursuers or more already waiting at the chase breakers.
Or to escape with style when unsure whether that android 40 meters over there is friendly or not, hidden in a crowd, or after using a height chase breaker/ one that takes long to take the second one. Only if it is ensured that the enemy will take more than 2.1 seconds to go up, of course.

What I want to say is, situations where you really need those .3 seconds faster are, in my imagination, pretty rare, whereas you could use the 10 second lower cooldown more often (and if just for fun to look where you end up).

Does teleport always bring you to the somewhat same level or does it just send you 35 meters away, even up a roof that distance away from you?

This is great. I love love love AC multiplayer, but I’d also love it if you guys would write a post about how terrible the matchmaking system is. What a joke, right? I mean, in Brotherhood I was willing to forgive Ubisoft for the crappy matchmaking, the waiting minutes to often still never find a game, the random freezing. But Revelations is actually worse, somehow. It still takes forever to find a game, it seems much more likely that players will drop out in between games now, and I get randomly booted from matches pretty consistently. Plus, the random freezing is still there, and I’ve experienced a new bug where I’ll be in a game and just not be assigned a target for minutes, even with 6+ people in the game. If I didn’t love the multiplayer so much, I would stop playing…

Hmmm, that’s curious. I’ll check when I’m home, but I’m pretty sure my NAT type is open and I don’t have any troubles in other PSN matchmaking. I’ve definitely heard others complaining of my experience, but fewer than I would expect so it clearly isn’t happening to everybody. Are you both PS3? I suspect Xbox Live is a bit smoother regardless based on my experience with both systems.

EA, Y U NO release pc versions together with the console ones? As I simply can not play it on my shiny ps3 for family-ar reasons (c wat I did thar?), I suppose I’ll have to wait for the pc version to come out.
At least we won’t have to wait months again…not like that would have ever happened…*cough*.
I’m pretty broke right now, but might be able to raise the money by december anyway, so it fits, methinks.

When speaking about Decoy, what does “disguised” behaviour mean?
Do they move out of sight slowly but steady?
Do they pop Disguise (imagine the mindfuck when used together with the actual Disguise!)?
Or…what?

I think discreet is that they walk away in a controlled manner rather than running like their head is on fire and disguised is the decoy moves away and disguises itself which makes it look like a player.

This guide has been such a help. I unlocked crafting a long time ago and I was really unsure what to do so I just didn’t do anything >.< but it's good to know that your guide pretty much confirms what I was going to do with most of the abilities.

Glad you enjoyed it. I’m going to make some edits to it based on getting more experience, but most of the general thoughts are the same. I’ve just been weighing if the 2nd point in 90-second cooldown abilities is worth it for just 5 seconds.

hey WiNGSPANTT thanks loads for this bit of info, but when you prestige it do you get to craft your abilities a second time when you hit level 30 again? I have been asking this question alot and nobody seems to know, be wrapped if you could get back to me on this because you would have had to of prestiged it

*cooldown -_-
Oh, and before i forget i’m expiriencing same problems as tacothedeep though i own the pc version of the game. Once i even spent five(!) minutes clowning around fightening players, having no targets and pursuers, though it does show a blue triangle with no assigned target from time to time.

Both points in Poison should go into score. A typical match is 10 minutes (600 seconds). (600/90) x 300 = 2000 vs. (600/80) x 250 = 1875. You get 6.67 uses of poison with a 90 second cooldown and 7.5 uses of poison with an 80 second cooldown.

That is, when you constantly use it on cooldown. If you kill every 20 seconds you will be able to poison every fourth target (optimally, of course). As with 90 sec cooldown, you will have to pass out every other target and delay 10 seconds for the next.

If you don’t understand what I mean, you poison your first target right when the match starts (10:00). Then, you kill 3 more targets and get to the next one 10 seconds after the cooldown is up (8:20).

Well, that does not bring me anywhere. Never do an argument without doing your math first, kids!

Still, you did yours wrong, too. Since you can only use Poison when it’s off cooldown, you gotta stick to N0.
Meaning that you get 7 uses of 80 sec Poison making 1750 points, and 6 uses of 90 sec Poison making 1800 points.

Not so different now, isn’t it?

As you always have to round down, 80 sec Poison actually gives you a tiny bit more. They will both be on Cooldown when the match ends, whether it’s longer or shorter.
(0.5 rounded down makes less lost than 0.67)
Also, catching the thought of my first comment half, which I refuse to delete, you may not be able to use it most efficiently. You might end up poisoning a target 85 seconds after the last use and then spend 20 seconds killing a roofrunner with no chance for Poison. It just feels like you can possibly waste less time by being able to poison, even for less points, on every occasion.

One point of consideration is that the cooldowns carry over when you change ability sets. I rarely run the same ability set the whole match, so having to wait 90 seconds to use Throwing Knives is very annoying following a skill set change.

That system is just pointless. There has to be a drawback to constantly switching sets, but just giving it the same cooldown is not the way. Also, if I got this right, you could just have two identical ability sets with two situational abilities like poison and gun swapped in order so that you get two uses of that ability.

IMHO, it would make more sense to make it a percentual cooldown carryover, or at least cap it at the maximum cooldown for that skill, with regular cooldown resuming if you switch back to the used long-cooldown ability.

Like, use gun, die 5 seconds after, get Knives instead, use those 50 seconds later (full CD), get killed 5 seconds later and resume your Gun set, which gives you 30 seconds left on Gun until reusable.

Dude, you are a GENIUS. I never thought of that. I will have to test it tonight.

You mean like put 1 set with Gun/Poison and the other Poison/Gun, right? Then if you use Gun and die, you can switch to the second set where Poison will be on cooldown and use Gun again?! In theory, of course.

I personally think that both points for tripwire should be dumped into cooldown. When someone uses tripwire, it’s generally to put in front of them in a stationary blending group to trap pursuers. You should be planning this out ahead of time anyway and I don’t think .8 seconds less activation time will do that much.

Great article, the funny thing is that when I crafted a good deal of abilities, then came here to see what would be a good plan, I had already gotten everything right. Great minds think alike, I suppose. Oh, and Assassin’s Creed multiplayer has to be one of the most unique and innovative multiplayers out there. I’m loving the fact that you don’t have to have a higher k/d ratio to win.

All I want to say is that I disagree with the Mute usage. Mute is a very powerful ability if you play defensively like I do and the more you can use it, the better. When you have 3 pursuers on you, that extra 15 seconds can make a huge difference so I put two cooldown points into it for that reason. If it had a shorter cooldown, then I’d put both points in range. I feel like duration is irrelevant because once you use Mute, you want to take action immediately anyway otherwise yoi’ve just wasted your time and possibly gotten yourself stunned or killed.

Given that you’ve had more time with all these skills, any chance of an update? For example, I know that nowadays you run with a very different smoke bomb craft from what you have here… Why? And are there any other abilities you would change now?

Throwing knifes never really seemed like a useful ability. I tried using it myself and though it is effective incapacitating targets, I found it discouraging that players can still use their abilites (i.e., smoke bomb or stun) preventing from me getting a kill or a stun. But I watched a recent vid of wings using throwing knifes and learned that as long as you slowly approached the target while knifes was still in effect then you get the kill.

Stun appears to be a different story. I try to use on when my pursuer is running at me but found that the animation would bring me in range for a kill! Other than that I’ve been using that ability a lot more!

I’m trying to craft this ability to best suit my play style but I’m wondering what does target speed effect when you put points toward this ability?

Throwing knives are a great ability if u have the talent.. ok so I’m probably giving away a huge secret. I’ve been playing for 2 days now I’m lvl 20. Xbox. Knives… Have a temporary stun effect. After impact when they grab their wound u have about 1 second of free time… Knife pursuers, stun while they’re hurting u cannot react to save urself. Again this window of opportunity is very small and only for talented assassins.. check it out and reply to my post! GT: iEinherjar. Wingman get at me dude!

Once you start playing prestige-tier matches, people will start counter-smoking you, so I would easily recommend putting all two points of the Smoke Bomb to duration. That way even if my pursuer tries to throw his bomb, I can still stun him since my bomb lasts a sec longer. Same goes to targets I try to kill but I know beforehand that they are going to smoke me. I have the resilience perk on my deathmatch profile, so I never lose even if I get counter-smoked.

Also, pulling focus kills using the bomb is a bit easier with an extra second.

I have one argument about the decoy and would like ur opinion. I find a more sporatic decoy is more effective. Especially against noobs and lets face it anyone who falls for a decoy is pretty noob or got caught spamming the kill button. With the sporatic decoy the lock on prompt will pop up faster and ppl are more likely to go for it just make sure to delay use so it still matches the compass for the most part.

I pretty much agree. Or one thing to do is start running, then hit Decoy. Most people hit Decoy, then wait for you to fall for it. So you get used to assuming the persona that runs 2nd is the real one. If you do the opposite, you might get someone.

I think that running Decoys do their job just as well if you use it right. Unless your pursuer knows who you are and is locked on to you, in which case Decoy won’t help you, it’s surprising to see how often you can use the twitch moment to your advantage.
If anything moves, our eyes are instantly drawn to that object. With the right timing, you might draw your pursuers’ attention just barely long enough to surprise them. Very risky though.
I’d recommend doing a pro Knife throw where you just step into range as the Knife hits them, giving them no time to react.

Trust me, I do those regularly against prestiged players. Nobody sees them coming.

Know your abilities, but also know when other are more appropriate (kind of like Wing’s S lesson…)

[…] That’s why this article covers an extensive range of strategy recommendations for every multiplayer ability in Assassin’s Creed 3, just like I did with my Brotherhood abilities guides and my Assassin’s Creed Revelations crafting guide. […]